In true Windsor fashion, Wallis and the Duke had run to the worst people they could find, Mrs. Woolworth Donahue and her playboy son, Jimmy. Mrs. Donahue had the money to court the notorious couple, paying their jeweler and clothing bills and foisting her son off on Wallis, who spent too much time with Jimmy, who was half her age. Judging by the picture, all Wallis needed to do in return was sacrifice what remained of her dignity, another in a lifetime of Wallis’s poor decisions.
“I never thought I’d be grateful for Wallis but I am.” Amelia turned the picture of her cousin facedown on the table. “If it hadn’t been for her, I wouldn’t have everything I have today, including you.”
He took her hand and raised it to his lips and Amelia smiled.
Wallis had said the best revenge was a life well lived. She’d been right.
Acknowledgments
Amelia Montague is a fictional character, but I drew on accounts from various Windsor secretaries to help flesh out her story. Those memoirs and recollections paint an overly rosy picture of what it was like to work for the Windsors. However, flashes of the truth can be found in other sources. Letitia Baldrige, social secretary to the American Ambassador to France and later to Jackie Kennedy, mentioned in her memoirs an encounter with the Duchess of Windsor’s personal secretary. Mrs. Baldrige related how the woman cried because she hadn’t enjoyed a day off in a year, and the Duchess had canceled her one day off for a trivial reason. Other servants give hints here and there that Wallis was a difficult and exacting boss who also didn’t pay well.
Amelia might be fictional, but much of the Windsors’ desire to regain the British throne and the events of 1937 through 1944 are taken from reality. You can read more about the Windsors’ alleged treasonous activities in many Windsor biographies. The biographies also discuss how free the Windsors were with their admiration of Germany and their belief that England would lose the war. Wallis’s dislike of Queen Elizabeth and her lifelong grudge against England were well known, as was her overbearing and insulting manner with the Duke, often in front of others, especially in later years. Most of the FBI documents that Robert shows Amelia are amalgamations of actual FBI documents on the Windsors, and they are available to read on archive.org and various other websites. Some of the letters from German officials that Robert shows her are from the Marburg File, a German Foreign Ministry file found after the war that detailed much of the Windsors’ dealings with the Germans. The Marburg File was kept secret for years but was published in the 1950s in German Documents on Foreign Policy, where it can still be read. Most of Mr. Metcalf’s telegram to Amelia saying that he is through with the Windsors comes from his letter to his wife after the Duke abandoned him in Paris. Eugenie is a fictional character, but Lady Williams-Taylor is real and she did spy on the Windsors in Paris and The Bahamas. Mademoiselle Moulichon is real and she was the person that Wallis sent to occupied Paris to retrieve a number of their things. She had a harrowing three-month journey trying to rejoin them in The Bahamas and was briefly arrested. Sadly, she never wrote a memoir of her experience. Whenever possible in the novel, I used real quotes or turns of phrase from Wallis and the Duke or those who knew them.
I hope you enjoyed reading the novel as much as I did researching and writing it. A special thanks to my editors Lucia Macro
and Asanté Simons, and my agent, Kevan Lyon, for their help in bringing this interesting story to life.
About the Author
GEORGIE BLALOCK is a history lover and movie buff who loves combining her different passions through historical fiction and a healthy dose of period piece films. When not writing, she can be found prowling the nonfiction history section of the library or the British film listings on Netflix or in the dojo training for her next black belt rank. Her novels include The Other Windsor Girl, The Last Debutantes, and An Indiscreet Princess.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
Praise for The Windsor Conspiracy
“Brimming with drama, deceit and betrayal, The Windsor Conspiracy is a fascinating story of a young woman torn between loyalty to family and love of country and the immense courage it takes to accept the challenge of a lifetime. Compelling to the last page.”
—Shelley Noble, New York Times bestselling author of The Tiffany Girls
“The Windsor Conspiracy offers a complex and compelling portrait of Wallis Simpson following the abdication, as told through the eyes of her trusted cousin and confidante. From Parisian chateaux to Bahamian estates, Blalock has weaved a chilling narrative about the lengths to which the embittered and myopic Duke and Duchess were willing to go to restore their grip on power.”
—Bryn Turnbull, internationally bestselling author of The Paris Deception
“Georgie Blalock pens a vivid portrait of the lives of disgraced Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson through the downstairs viewpoint of Wallis’s personal secretary in this glittering parade of European high society. The Windsor Conspiracy is the next best thing to being on the set of The Crown!”
—Stephanie Marie Thornton, USA Today bestselling author of Her Lost Words
“Georgie Blalock returns to the Windsors, this time taking sharp aim at the Duke and Duchess as they stand on the brink of World War II. Through the fresh eyes of Wallis Simpson’s cousin and personal secretary, we get a unique and intimate portrait of this couple in all their entitlements as well as their alliance with Hitler and the Third Reich. Spellbinding tale, impeccably researched, The Windsor Conspiracy is a must-read for fans of the royals and historical fiction alike.”
—Renée Rosen, USA Today bestselling author of Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl
“A fascinating deep dive into the turbulent waters of one of history’s most controversial couples, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, through the eyes of Wallis Simpson’s cousin and companion, The Windsor Conspiracy is historical fiction at its best!”
—Christine Wells, internationally bestselling author of The Royal Windsor Secret
“A fascinating look behind the scandalous curtain of the life of Wallis Simpson in the early years of her marriage to the Duke of Windsor, who abdicated the throne of England to be with her, from the viewpoint of her cousin turned private secretary. Carefully researched and expertly woven into the sweeping pages of a novel, Georgie Blalock takes us back to mid–World War II, and a tense time for the royal family, where conspiracies and betrayal thrive. Intrigue abounds in this page-turner. Highly recommended for fans of the royal family and the drama of the century!”
—Eliza Knight, USA Today and internationally bestselling author of The Queen’s Faithful Companion
Also by Georgie Blalock
The Other Windsor Girl
The Last Debutantes
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used fictitiously. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.
the windsor conspiracy. Copyright © 2024 by Georgie Blalock. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
first edition
Cover design by Mumtaz Mustafa
Cover photograph © Chronicle/Alamy Stock Photo
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
Digital Edition JULY 2024 ISBN: 978-0-06-333985-9
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-333984-2
About the Publisher
